Long story short, my sister has decided that she wants to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. She has a master's in psych, and believes this will be an easy thing to achieve, but she just simply doesn't want to clean poop.
I do assist with peri care, sometimes with a tech, and sometimes because the tech is with another patient. It's not the biggest part of my job and it is not the worst part of my job. It gives me a chance to assess skin issues, to change any bandages that may be on the coccyx, and to let the patient know that I'm there no matter what reason they need me.
I tried to explain this to her, and she just doesn't 'get it'. I get this idea that becoming an NP is practically the same as a MD to her, and that worries me. She'll learn, I suppose. I just hope that she will understand that assisting a patient at a time when they can't even go to the bathroom by themselves is not a bad thing. It's not horrible to help someone. It's what we do.
I'm just bothered by it. Thoughts...comments? Ways to make her understand? all appreciated.
There is nothing you can do to make her understand. She is one of many in a new cadre of students who believe they will simply get into grad school, immediately after undergrad, and begin a career as an NP or CRNA. They don't get that admissions are fierce and a MS in another field doesn't hold as much weight in nursing as they thought it would be.
She will enter a field with people younger than her, who have less education, working as her superior. Hopefully she can just see nursing for what it is, rather than enter the field for a hypothetical future profession, requiring additional training. Nursing, or healthcare for that matter, is not a field for egos.
There is nothing you can do to make her understand. She is one of many in a new cadre of students who believe they will simply get into grad school, immediately after undergrad, and begin a career as an NP or CRNA. They don't get that admissions are fierce and a MS in another field doesn't hold as much weight in nursing as they thought it would be.
She will enter a field with people younger than her, who have less education, working as her superior. Hopefully she can just see nursing for what it is, rather than enter the field for a hypothetical future profession, requiring additional training. Nursing, or healthcare for that matter, is not a field for egos.
This person already holds a masters degree in a different (but similar) area. I don't think the academic portion of things is going to be difficult.
Whether or not anyone likes the intent of this person going towards the NP path, this person sounds perfectly able. Just avoid poop scraping for as long as possible until she has enough "experience" to go to grad school. Heck, some grad schools might even do direct entry!
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Thoughts...comments? Ways to make her understand? all appreciated.
During my brief stint in psych, we'd occasionally deal with plugged poopy toilets, incontinent IDD patients who required diaper changes, and the unstable ones who smear their fecal matter on the walls.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I just KNEW there would be a reply from NOADLS! It's amazing! I'm psychic! WOW!
To the OP, you need to leave it alone. Your sister has it set in her mind and the more you say, the more she'll resist your opinions. Whether she's mistaken or she manages to pull it off, it will be hers to deal with.
Many of us may think this is a bad idea, but the reality is that direct-entry MSN programs will happily accept people like your sister, provide them with the bare minimum of basic nursing education and poop cleaning necessary for licensure, and prepare them to walk into an advanced practice job which will also entail little to no poop-cleaning. Depending on where she chooses to go to school, she wouldn't have to work a single day as a generalist RN. People do it every day. Her attitude is not at all unusual these days, and nursing is happy to accommodate her. That's the entire reason direct-entry programs exist.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I just hope she realizes what she is getting into, going into psych. LOTS of issues to deal with. It isn't likely to be 9-5 either.
People are people no matter where in nursing, but psych has its very unique challenges-----mental health issues amplified x100. I would be interested to see the look on her face the first time a patient who has "lost it" launches his or her feces at her in her practice.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Uhhh...she does realize psych/Alzheimer's patients like to do all kinds of things with their poop, right?
Yep. The technical terms are scatolia (fecal smearing) and coprophagia (eating one's feces). Scatolia and coprophagia are exceedingly common in the geri-psych patient population.
WOW!
RegularNurse
232 Posts
There is nothing you can do to make her understand. She is one of many in a new cadre of students who believe they will simply get into grad school, immediately after undergrad, and begin a career as an NP or CRNA. They don't get that admissions are fierce and a MS in another field doesn't hold as much weight in nursing as they thought it would be.
She will enter a field with people younger than her, who have less education, working as her superior. Hopefully she can just see nursing for what it is, rather than enter the field for a hypothetical future profession, requiring additional training. Nursing, or healthcare for that matter, is not a field for egos.